BUFFALO, N.Y. — For the last few years, Columbus Day has been a day that has been met with some serious resistance on whether it should be celebrated or not, sparking debates nationwide about the future of the federal holiday.
Now New York lawmakers are proposing some significant changes to the day.
“This is should have been made 30 years ago,” Carl Jamieson of the Gayogohono Nation said.
Workers and students across Western New York will pause and take a day off on Monday in honor of Columbus Day, but Jamieson doesn’t understand what we’re celebrating.
“If you're going to celebrate genocide, let's call it what it is,” he said. “I don't celebrate genocide. It's not something I'm interested in.”
A bill is currently in motion to remove Columbus Day from the state holiday calendar and replace it with Indigenous Peoples’ Day.
It’s an issue that’s been top of mind for Western New Yorkers for the past few years. In 2020, vandalism and protesting caused city officials to strike down the Christopher Columbus statue and the name of the park formerly known as Columbus Park.
“Society has a problem with hiding things away and not dealing with reality,” Jamieson said. “It’s time to wake up and teach reality and stop teaching fiction.”
But not everyone is in agreement with that notion.
“We have certain individuals trying to apply today's standards, 2022, to the issues and the actions of over 530 years ago,” Assembly member Angelo Morinello (R-Niagara Falls) said.
Morinello believes Columbus Day represents a key moment in our country’s history and in his Italian heritage, and he feels that to replace the holiday with Indigenous Peoples’ Day would be a disservice.
“I think it's unfair to the indigenous people to try and substitute a holiday just to put them in,” he said. “We need to honor them on their own and not as a substitute.”
But to Jamieson, it’s not about a day. It’s about his people finally getting the justice that he thinks they deserve.